The modern video viewing experience within consumer households has been changing dramatically in recent years, with more interactivity being introduced for content navigation, social media, T-Commerce, and more display output options becoming available in the home. In many households multiple TV displays are now complemented by laptops, PC monitors, and smaller displays like tablet computers and smartphones for video viewing throughout the home, and on the go. Smartphones are starting to be used to navigate video content, schedule and manage DVR recordings, and as remote control devices for connected TVs. While some systems may allow a smartphone or other network device to manage set top boxes via web-protocols, the interfaces are generally web-driven. Televisions and other traditional video displays currently lack the point-and-click user interface that personal computers have made available to their users for decades. Applicant is unaware of any commercially viable approach to turning generic TV monitors into interactive displays without connecting them to computers (e.g., displaying the output of a PC to a TV monitor), or embedding them with computer and sensor components (e.g., providing a console device with a camera or light bar and dedicated controllers for controlling the console, such as the Wii game console offered by Nintendo, which use dedicated controllers with cameras to sense the direction and orientation of lights provides by an IR light bar controlled by the console and placed at a fixed location relative to the TV screen.)
Several approaches have been proposed for making TV remote control devices behave more like a computer mouse, but none have proven to be convenient for the consumer or cost effective for CPE manufactures or PayTV service providers. For the video gaming community the industry has made great strides with the introduction and adoption of devices like Nintendo's Wii Wand and Microsoft's Kinect interactive camera system. These motion sensing methods for remote control of gaming systems are starting to bridge the gap between TV and PC human-machine interfaces, but they require the addition of expensive hardware into the TV/Gaming area in the home. Apple's success with the iPhone and iPad introduced the smartphone and tablet as new form factors for remote control devices. TV remote control mobile apps are available for smartphones and tablets that provide a traditional remote control interface on the touchscreen of the device, which may interact with the home entertainment components via an IR emitter on the phone or via a Bluetooth or network link to specialized set-top devices that provide a network control interface. These set-top devices may be provided by cable operators and may allow network devices to schedule or manage recordings, and in some cases allow real-time interaction with the cable box by receiving remote-control like commands over the network. These interfaces have been limited, however, to the traditional remote interface of up-down-right-left, numeric entry, and selection of pre-defined remote buttons. In some instances, selection of individual shows or recordings can be made using the touch screen of the smartphone or tablet, rather than by interacting with an interface on the TV.
Today's smartphones and tablets come with onboard sensors that can be useful for locating rough location and orientation of the device. However, these sensors generally lack the precision needed to utilize this information for providing a user interface. For example, GPS sensors are useful for providing a rough approximation of the location of the device, to allow the phone to be located within several meters. This may be sufficient to locate the phone near an address while navigating in a car or looking for nearby restaurants. However, these sensors have thus far been unable to replace the sensor used on other systems that provide home entertainment interfaces (such as cameras with IR range finders and IR beacons or ultrasonic devices that are hardwired into the TV or console devices.) Accordingly, there remains a disconnect between the capabilities of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and providing a truly interactive interface with TV displays or other interactive devices.